410: refrigeration-spillover-too cold in refrig

[a64pilot]

Having the fridge get too cold is a problem I can live with, gotta love that CoolBlue.
I'm taking a thermometer down with me to measure the temps this weekend, the IR one I don't trust to be that accurate.

[SailRedemption]

Can't wait to turn on my Cool Blue system, just mounted the compressor this week, waiting on some 10ga wire to run to it.

My box is like y'alls, two holes in the near bottom, two in the near top.

What thermostat do you guys use? I was looking at the one Sailor Solutions http://sailorssolutions.com/index.as...s&Item=SSTAT01 but it's pricey, though nice. Honestly, I'm up in the air about it..

- Ronnie...on the geaux

[ozsailer]

Hi Blis Schip,
I have been through this whole process. In my view a spillover system just does not work on the freezer and fridge in the 410's. Our boat came with the one frigomatic freezer panel and cone compressor. There was an existing 100mm hole between the fridge and freezer located centrally.
The boat is an ex charter unit which was located in the Whitsunday Island in Tropical North Queensland. When we bought the boat the fridge would cool but food would start going off after 4 to 5 days. Ice would stay frozen but nothing would freeze unless it was against the cold plate.
I installed a 100mm waterproof 2 volt computer fan over the hole to force air into the fridge. This worked relatively well and from that moment on we did not lose any food in the fridge. There was no way to gauge the temperature so I bought a small fridge/freezer thermometer and placed it in the freezer and connected a 12 volt LED temp gauge to the fridge. Despite the compressor running almost non stop the temp in the freezer never went below 0 degrees. The temp in the fridge held between 10 and 15 degrees.
It was quite clear to me that the one compressor and cooling plate was just way to small for the large area that is the fridge and freezer. If memory serves me right the freezer and fridge have a total capacity of 200 litres. That's a lot of air space to cool.
On closer inspection I saw that there had once been an cooling plate in the rear of the fridge. It had been disconnected and removed and I suspect that the hole was an after market installation by the charter company.
I had a refrigeration mechanic look at the boat while in the Whitsundays and it was his opinion that the system would never work as was and stated that it required a separate unit in the fridge and freezer. He quoted and we accepted the quote but he never ever turned up to do the job. Go figure .
The unit worked until we returned to our home waters where I had the local refrigeration guru have a look at the unit. He was as the same opinion as the first tradesman and when we told me we would be returning to the tropics stated that in his experience the only system that would work properly for all our travels were cooling plates freezer and fridge run by independent compressors. Based on my own experience and the comments made by both independent refrigeration tradesman we opted for this system.
I could not be happier. The system is working flawlessly and we have to keep the fridge to its lowest setting locally to make sure it does not ice up. We have taken the freezer down to - 18 degrees Celsius without anything in the freezer. We not only keep all our meat etc frozen but ice blocks for the kids and ice cream when I get the taste..
The plates were custom made to fit the freezer and fridge from copper plate and tubing. We utilised the existing freezer compressor and were up for a new danfos compressor for the fridge.
Total cost $3400 installed. I now have total control over the temperature of my fridge and my freezer and very very happy that it will perform in the most extreme of circumstances.
There is a company here in Australia called Ozefridge. I was looking at buying one of their systems and installing it myself. It ended up being cheaper having a custom built unit installed by a professional.
While the old unit with the fan did function it was not efficient or effective particularly in tropical climates. Even with the second compressor I am not using anywhere near the power I was using with the one compressor and fan unit.
If you are never going to the tropics then a spill over system may be all new need. If your going further afield spend the extra, see a marine refrigeration tradesman and get the job done properly.
Just my two cents worth Sorry for being so long winded but there was no way of writing this any shorter.


Greg, Sue and Bella the sea dog
SV Sunshine Lagoon 410 S2
Lake Macquarie NSW OZ.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by SailRedemption

Can't wait to turn on my Cool Blue system, just mounted the compressor this week, waiting on some 10ga wire to run to it.

My box is like y'alls, two holes in the near bottom, two in the near top.

What thermostat do you guys use? I was looking at the one Sailor Solutions LED lighting, soundproof, Sailor's Solutions Inc. but it's pricey, though nice. Honestly, I'm up in the air about it..

- Ronnie...on the geaux

I'd use the thermostat that came with the CoolBlue, has to be a readily available, in-expensive thermostat. I want reliability first, availability second, and low cost third. I think the one it comes with fits those, a thermostat only needs to be a temperature controlled switch, any more and you may be un-necessarily complicating things

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by SailRedemption

I was looking at the one Sailor Solutions LED lighting, soundproof, Sailor's Solutions Inc. but it's pricey, though nice. Honestly, I'm up in the air about it..

- Ronnie...on the geaux

Hey Ronnie.
My advice would be to save the money on the fancy thermostat at first and see how things work for a while and what your daily amp usage shakes out to be. If you want some additional power savings by having the compressor turn on when charging power is available rather than just by plate temp, sure go for it. How much power you will really save we found in testing was based more on the insulation of your box, which would need more frequent compressor cycles, so it varies.

Now if you just want a nice digital read out temp of your box, you can buy those amazingly cheap online...and I'll post the link for those later when I'm not thumb typing from my smart phone...ha ha

What I don't like about the electronic thermostats with added gizmos is that they have a much higher failure rate than the mechanical thermostat (so always keep you manual in the box and ready) and the "F with it factor". All of those functions and features sometimes give people more of a way to screw things up than make things more efficient. They set the hysteresis wrong, they set the on/off temps for the plate wrong, they basically worry themselves (and me with phone calls) to death after hearing every chat room, anchorage, and dock rumor of how the other guy did this, or did that to his system. Let me put it this way, we have tested every after market gadget and thermostat on the market in addition to designing and testing our own and if we could eek out another 5% or 10% in energy savings per day...hell sign me up! But at the end of the day we keep coming back to the KISS reality of the manual thermostat.

[SailRedemption]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I'd use the thermostat that came with the CoolBlue, has to be a readily available, in-expensive thermostat. I want reliability first, availability second, and low cost third. I think the one it comes with fits those, a thermostat only needs to be a temperature controlled switch, any more and you may be un-necessarily complicating things

It didn't come with one, but you know I didn't even think about that. I'll be sure to ask Rich.

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Hey Ronnie.
My advice would be to save the money on the fancy thermostat at first and see how things work for a while and what your daily amp usage shakes out to be. If you want some additional power savings by having the compressor turn on when charging power is available rather than just by plate temp, sure go for it. How much power you will really save we found in testing was based more on the insulation of your box, which would need more frequent compressor cycles, so it varies.

Now if you just want a nice digital read out temp of your box, you can buy those amazingly cheap online...and I'll post the link for those later when I'm not thumb typing from my smart phone...ha ha

What I don't like about the electronic thermostats with added gizmos is that they have a much higher failure rate than the mechanical thermostat (so always keep you manual in the box and ready) and the "F with it factor". All of those functions and features sometimes give people more of a way to screw things up than make things more efficient. They set the hysteresis wrong, they set the on/off temps for the plate wrong, they basically worry themselves (and me with phone calls) to death after hearing every chat room, anchorage, and dock rumor of how the other guy did this, or did that to his system. Let me put it this way, we have tested every after market gadget and thermostat on the market in addition to designing and testing our own and if we could eek out another 5% or 10% in energy savings per day...hell sign me up! But at the end of the day we keep coming back to the KISS reality of the manual thermostat.

Will do, and if you could let me know what you use that would be great. And if I need a thermostat from you let me know and I'll give you a call to order it.

- Ronnie...on the geaux

[SV THIRD DAY]

Hey Amigo...
Just send you Billing and Shipping address to me at Rich@cruiserowater.com
I will send you an online invoice, you pay online, and boom...it ships out on Monday.

[jcapo]

Originally Posted by SailRedemption

Can't wait to turn on my Cool Blue system, just mounted the compressor this week, waiting on some 10ga wire to run to it.

My box is like y'alls, two holes in the near bottom, two in the near top.

What thermostat do you guys use? I was looking at the one Sailor Solutions LED lighting, soundproof, Sailor's Solutions Inc. but it's pricey, though nice. Honestly, I'm up in the air about it..

- Ronnie...on the geaux

That's a Carel thermostat in the panel. Rparts.com sells them and you can find them on Ebay too. Its nice to be able to set the on/off differential in my holding plate system.